StudioLA's Jim Ferguson interviews Ben Affleck Star of Pearl Harbor

Ben Affleck sits down with our own Jim Ferguson and talks about his leading role in Jerry Bruckheimer's Pearl Harbor .

StudioLA's Jim Ferguson chats with Ben Affleck in this exclusive interview on location at the Pearl Harbor site in Hawaii on the eve of the premiere of "Pearl Harbor," the movie.

Jim: Hey Ben, it's so good to see you again.

Ben: How are you? It's always nice to see you.

Jim: We're here on the U.S.S. Stennis aircraft carrier, the Arizona Memorial behind us, and if that doesn't inspire you to go see this movie Pearl Harbor, then?[Ben interrupts -"You've got a heart of stone!" laughter]...[Jim continues] nothing will! But that means a lot to the actors, I just talked to Dan Akroyd, and they did take tours out to the Arizona Memorial and it made an impression on him.

Ben: It made an enormous impression on me and I think I didn't realize how big an impression it would make. I had just finished just a week-long bootcamp with some of the [Army] Rangers over here. And so I had been working with military folks for a little while. And then we went overat the Arizona, and, in a strange way, the fact that the 1,177 men are still entombed there and there is still oil that leaks from the ship, it gives you a very immediate sense of the wages of war, and the price paid in human lives and suffering for a war.

Jim: Going back to World War II, as an actor what did it feel like to walk in the shoes of Rafe McCawley, Air Force ace, the United States Army Air Force ace, for several months of hardwork.

Ben: You know it was an honor, and that's one of the reasons that I wanted to participate in the bootcamp and the ceremony. I wanted to be involved in the military because I don't take lightly putting on the uniform, I understand what it means, the responsibility that it entails, and that there would be an added degree of scrutiny.

People would be looking at this movie to see how we would be telling the story. It was really an honor to play the part, and it was an honor to be involved with this production. It really meant a lot to me. The nice thing is that it's an opportunity...you and I speak quite a bit and oftentimes about just regular everyday movies, and this is not one of them.

It's about something substantive and real and about a generation of Americans. And even more than a generation of Americans, about 50 million people lost their lives on six continents in the second World War. It was the most important event of the twentieth century and so obviously you can't do great justice to all that in one movie, but if we could, you know [have] some small part to say "thank you" to the men and women who sacrificed for us, then I was very proud of it.

Jim: I'm sure you can't be historically accurate on everything. As you said, it would need a six hour movie to do that. How did you feel about that?

Ben: You know I was very mindful, and everyone was always, we always talked about how would this play in Japan. I think in one regard because Japan is the second biggest market in the world so there's a commercial consideration. But beyond that, I didn't want to be part of a movie that wasn't going to treat the Japanese with respect.

[It's] respect that they deserve. They were warriors. They were soldiers and part of what we wanted to demonstrate in this movie was the way which FDR in large part engineeredhe made it very difficult in negotiations of the treaty for the Japanese to end the embargo so they could import oil.

The Japanese would do anything other than go to war with us. Tactically, it was a brilliant move to attack Pearl Harbor the way they did. Andwe saw the war coming. It's a terrible thing that wars have to be fought.

And it's a wonderful thing that they are such great and fierce allies and friends of ours now. And I think that the honorable treatment that we were giving them in the film, I hope they take that as a gesture on our part to say that, "This is history. This is not contemporary. We understand there was a war at that time."

And one of the really nice things that I have encountered from the veterans is particularly the Aces and the flying Aces, that they often times go to conventions with the Japanese Aces and that they get along famously and they have a kind of brotherhood, a solidarity as soldiers as flying men. That was remarkable for me.

Jim: You did a remarkable job in this film. We can go on and on and talk forever. I'm going to leave you with this - Remember, Pearl Harbor should never be forgotten. This film certainly makes that possible to never forget this day 1941, December 7th.

Ben: Thank you so much.

Jim: Thank you, Ben.

Ben: It's a pleasure as always Jim.